21 suspects in Rs. 263 m credit card scam granted bail
Thursday, 4 July 2013 01:48
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By Lakmal Sooriyagoda
Twenty one NGO workers who were in remand custody in connection with the Rs. 263 million fraud where funds belonging to foreign credit card holders were withdrawn using an e-commerce application service provided by a Sri Lankan state bank were ordered to be released on bail by a Colombo Court yesterday.
When the case taken up before Colombo Fort Magistrate Thilina Gamage, President’s Counsel Kalinga Indatissa with Upul Jayasuriya and counsel Nalinda Indatissa submitted to Court that charges against the suspects under the Public Property Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the Prevention of Terrorism Act cannot be maintained and further moved Court that suspects be released on bail.
Meanwhile, State Counsel who appeared for the Attorney General (AG) informed Court that the AG was not objecting to release the suspects from bail.
Accordingly, each suspect was released on a Rs. 50,000 of cash bail and two sureties of Rs. 2.5 million by the Magistrate under strict bail conditions.
The suspects were detained under CID custody for more than five months to ascertain whether the money earned through this fraudulent transaction had been remitted to the LTTE.
The CID alleged the funds collected by NGOs had not been allocated for charity works but distributed amongst themselves.
In this scam, the state bank had incurred a massive Rs. 263 million loss and the 21 suspects who were allegedly involved in the incident had been arrested by the CID.
The CID investigating the incident alleged that the suspects had obtained the Internet Payment Gateway (IPG) facility from the state bank through two Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in 2011. The CID said the two NGOs had received massive amounts of money as donations from foreign credit card holders for a period of one year.
The fraud had come to light after the foreign credit card holders had complained to the credit card issuers that their money had been fraudulently withdrawn by someone without their knowledge. In one instance, issuing a Charge-Back Notice to the Sri Lankan bank with regard to Rs. 454,251 the FIA Card Services, a representative institution of the Bank of America in the USA had alleged that the relevant money transaction had taken place without its customers’ knowledge.
The CID alleged the money transactions had taken place using fraudulent credit cards and the funds withdrawn had been deposited in bank accounts belonging to the Sahana Foundation and the Women and Children’s Development Foundation.
The CID suspects that through this fraudulent transaction, a massive amount of funds could have been remitted to the LTTE as well. Further magisterial inquiry into the matter postponed for 17 July.
